Uther's GRIMM
by Zephyrsword
Summary: With only days until a major exam, things go awry when Yang falls ill and Ruby has to look after her. In the meantime, Blake keeps witnessing a faunus boy painting Grimm at the walls of Beacon each day, desiring to one day attend the academy. Focuses on the origin of Dust, Grimm and Yang's relations to Cinder.
1. A Friendly Duel?

**I'm not sure how long this one will be, but it may not be too much longer than what Pharaoh's Gate was. I wanted to use this as a chance to visually express some theories I have for the RWBY series and possible conflicts that arise in the future. I hope you enjoy it! - Zephyr**

* * *

The top of the desk began collecting dust. Not the magical stones of various colours that helped empower the people on the world, but the icky flakes of dirt and grime that were made visable with the blinding glare of morning sunlight. A cloth went to it and some gentle rubbing, before the white haired girl threw it fustratingly into the upper bunk she stood next to. It landed in the face of a girl with short red hair that was once sleeping peacefully, but alas, no more.

The dirt cloth blocked her abhorrently loud snoring causing her to choke from the dirt before forcefully sneezing herself awake. Around her eyes was a black beowolf inspired sleeper mask, complete with cute red eyes. They blocked her vison as she sat up trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Somehow, before she had a chance to lift the blockade from her eyes, she voiced the opposing white-haired woman's name. "Weiss!" The poor red head blinked, trying to wake up from the sudden surprise. Before the victim had a chance to speak further, she was greeted by a rather harsh and loud retort.

"Ruby Rose! Just because it's the weekend doesn't mean you can not clean up after yourself!" Weiss seemed in a sour mood, a usual attitude that poor Ruby had to endure on a daily basis. The angry Weiss Schnee was already fully clothed in her field attire; She wore a snow white v-shaped shirt and pastel blue jacket with expanded cuffs at the wrists. She wore an abhorrently short hoop-skirt that revealed her bare legs as if she were wearing a giant snowflake.

"You're _supposed_ our team leader." The white-head placed a hand on her hip and tilted her head. "You should be doing your part for the dorm AND the combat field."

Ruby lazily grunted Weiss's harsh words off and ignored her in favour of checking the adjacent beds. The top bunk had a blonde sleeping with a brown dog-faced pillow. Yang Xiao Long. She was Ruby's adoptive older sister, hence why they lacked any notable resemblance. Somehow, Yang had managed to sleep through Weiss's tantrum and probably for the best; on rare occasions when she got mad, it was something to make even Weiss tremble. The lowest bunk was empty; the final member of the team RWBY, was not present.

"Oh hey," Ruby asked, changing the subject.

"What now!?" Weiss complained, trying her best to hold onto a pointless fight with the girl.

"Where's Blake?"

"No idea. She was up before me this morning. Probably plotting against my family or something." Weiss quite clearly had some kind of grudge with her as well. Ruby sighed. Once Weiss had got going on a rampage it was hard to bring her down. Before long a knock was heard at the door, the inevitable distraction the poor little girl needed. Ruby tiptoed over and opened it ajar to see who the visitor was. Her eyes met with bulging blue eyes trying to cram the person they belonged to through the door. "HELLO!" The woman behind the door shouted at the top of her lungs, forcing Ruby to jump back in utter suprise a few feet. Ruby then went back to the door and peeped back "Hi Nora," she sounded like a tiny whispering mouse in comparison.

Nora shouted back, less loudly before but still filled with a concerning amount of joy. "Pyrrah told me, to tell you to come train with us since it's our day off~ Lot's of fun-fun things too, y'know?"

"Sure." Ruby nodded. "I wasn't really planning much this weekend aside study for our exam anyways."

"Ohhh exam? More like PARTY!" Nora slapped her hands together excitedly. "Ren told me we can show off our skills and stuff!"

"... with limitation. We don't need the town buried under rubble." Ruby barely managed to finish her sentence when Nora was called off for goodness knows what reason. Probably Lie Ren again.

As Ruby shut the door behind her softly with a muffled clang she heard Yang in the make-shift bunk bed behind her yawn loudly as she slowly began to wake up. Arms outstretched, she seemed in a chipper mood. "Good morning everybody!"

Weiss still didn't seem in the slightest bit of a positive mood. Ruby just sighed expressively and shrugged it off.

* * *

After getting prepared, dressed and all squeaky clean-feeling; the three girls made their way outside of the Academy of Beacon. Ruby, much like Weiss wore a puffy short skirt, but it was black as night and had frills as red as roses. She wore a red cape with a hood that was down, making her appear like a certain character from a fairy tale about a wolf in the woods. Yang however, was much more casual in her dress sense. She wore a lot of leathers, a bright orange scarf and colossal boots. Much like her golden name, her hair was bright blonde, long and wild, much like her personality. As they walked, Yang casually outstretched her hands and casually clicked her bones in her fingers. "So where are team JNPR hanging out today?"

Ruby pointed to a patch of trees hanging over the walls of Beacon. "Just in the clearing of that small woodland where the flowers bloom. They said that they would be training there. You know there'll be a pretty big mission in a few days time right?"

"Yeah of course!" Weiss cried out with her arms waving as if she was trying to cover up that she didn't know. She hated the thought of not being anything less than perfect and it was more than obvious on the surface. _"I got to do MY best so that I can uphold the Schnee family name."  
_

After some short pacing, the girls made their way through the gate of Beacon to the outer grounds. Ahead of the cobbled pathway leading out of the college setting was a large tree signifying the gateway to the woodland. Under the branches of the tree sat a brown haired boy, perhaps 2 years younger than Ruby herself. He sat in mid-length grass off the side of the path and looked like he had some kind of sketchbook in his hands. Rather than be engrossed in painting, he was talking to a girl in black, who seemed familiar to the group of girls. Dressed in a tight black and white costume with long black hair and an abhorrently large black bow engaged conversation with him. Weiss folded her arms from afar and cocked her eye suspiciously "Just what sort of schemes is she up to this time?"

Yang flipped her hands into the air "You still have some growing up to do Weiss. Just because she's a Faunus doesn't make her any less of a friend. She's part of Team RWBY now."

Ruby waved at the final member of their four-girl team. She cupped her hands around her mouth like a megaphone. "Hey Blake!"

The girls ran to her as she finished her conversation with the younger boy. He seemed rather timid up close. Under his ragged tatty brown hair was a set of two emerald coloured eyes and he shyly went back to drawing in his book trying to look away from the girls in bashfulness. Blake slanted an eye towards Ruby Rose behind subtly waved back. "Hey."

"What's up? Who's this cute little kid?" Ruby asked, trying to eye over his drawing. The poor boy pulled his book up to try and hide the picture from her, but she still managed to make out a black creature on it with a white mask. It looked like a Grimm, but not one she had seen before. It looked more like a four-legged lizard with large horns. "Heeey, that looks really cool!"

Ruby's big sister also became interested. "Really? That good? Let me see!" Suddenly the red head and the blonde where looming over the little boy with overexcited expressions, scaring him.

"You're getting too close...you're kinda scaring me."

Blake grabbed them both by the scruff of the collar and pulled them back. "His name is Uther. I was just asking him a few questions as to why he's so close to the Beacon Academy." Ruby and Yang's arms dangled like little creepy fangirls.

"I come here for a little inspiration, that's all." The boy leaned his head back against the tree. "I don't get along very well with my father... so I come out here and draw things from my imagination. Something about this place makes me feel closer to home."

Ruby applauded his talent before realising that she, Yang and Weiss hadn't come out all this way for no reason. "Hey Blake, JNPR want us to meet with them a little further into the woods. We should go as a team."

Blake smiled and nodded with her weird passive expression she always had. "Yeah, I figure it was related to our secret mission when the weekdays kick off again, so all the training we can get would be worth our time. I left the dorm early for that reason, sorry for leaving you to guess where I was." she then bowed at her error. With some disagreement with Weiss, they eventually moved on together into the forest, leaving the boy to his own devices. The Schnee heir still wasn't fully convinced about who the boy was. Blake didn't openly talk to strangers without reason; and of course Weiss dropped into her usual anxious internal anxiety fit again. In short, Weiss didn't like White Fang members; even if they were former members due to the amount of damage they had inflicted on her fathers company.

* * *

Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Nora Valkryie and Pyrrah Nikos, members of the team JNPR were practising on the clearing of the small woodland. Dotted around were small patches of flowers of purple and white which gave the surroundings a relatively calming atmosphere. Jaune Arc, the yellow-headed leader of the group sporting his silver armour and black hoodie had just finished exchanging some gentle blows with Pyrrah's spear against his own sword. Pyrrah looked sort of like a female gladiator in a collesseum; she wore a gold decoration on her head, around her neck and on her chest arms and legs. He emerald eyes looked into Jaune with some caring support "Remember," The redhead said as she thrust her spear forward to meet his sword "This is just a warm up. Don't hold back when we battle for real, okay?"

Jaune whimpered and nodded. He was still a bit of a shaky fighter and not one hundred percent experienced in his craft or battle finesse, but Pyrrah tended to help him out a lot with a lot of that. He wondered why Ozpin, head of Beacon and of all people, would have chosen him as the leader of JNPR. Either way, he had taken some advice from Ruby to help him work as a team leader and as a group, rather than worry about the position he was privileged to be given. Pyrrah gave one last hard push with her bronze spear causing Jaune's sword to loosen and fly from his hand to the ground, disarming him as he was distracted for a moment. She smiled "Move too slowly and a Boarbatusk will knock you flying along with your sword just like that."

Jaune merely gulped at the thought of one of those creepy skull-faced pig menaces. He relaxed his arms and snapped a button on his white and gold shield, causing it to fold up into his sword sheath. How so much metal could cleverly compact itself was anybodies guess. He lifted his sword from the ground. Slightly dirty from the Vytal soil, he rubbed it a little with his brown glove so the sheen appeared in it again. Pyrrah offered out her hand to help him back up. "You're getting better."

Jaune accepted her hand but didn't seem fully convinced "No I'm not. I don't think I'll ever beat you at this rate."

Pyrrah placed her hands on both of his shoulders "Listen. It's not about beating me, Nora or Ren. We're here to work together. Each of us are trying our best to be able to overcome all our obsticles as a team."

"I still don't get why you weren't the team leader." Jaune woefully questioned.

"Consider me more the advisor of the group." Pyrrah chuckled. "Besides, I think with you being leader, you have a lot more room to grow." She released her grip from him, leaving Jaune to his own devices. It was then behind them they could both hear the kick of grass to the south. It wasn't their other members, Nora and Ren, since they were to the east of the forest goofing off; at least, Nora definitely was. Ren wore a green asian tunic and baggy cream pants. His hair was short and as black as night, with a single magenta highlight. Nora, whom Ruby saw earlier could now be fully seen. She had mid-length pumpkin-coloured hair and a white and black uniform with silver armour plating. She seemed to openly poke Ren on the face several times as if he was some kind of toy.

A rustle of grass in the distance.

Jaune noticed the bright contrasting gold of Yang's hair in the foliage background, soon followed by Weiss, Ruby and Blake, completed the team RWBY in front of him. Delicate at a glance, they were a group of skilled fighters, capable to surpass him and be a worthy match for his team. Ruby, the team leader of RWBY, waved at Jaune when she caught eyes with him spread a cheerful grin on her face. She strode over the grass towards him ahead of her other teammates and held out her hand in greeting once more. "How's it going Jaune?" She glanced at Nora and Ren in the background, the former of which let out a loud goofy moan as she swooped down her hammer. Ruby's eyes widened in suprise at Nora's frequently odd behaviour.

Jaune noticed Ruby's glance at his goofier team mate and attempted to distract her from it. "S-so, how are you lovely ladies doing?"

"Great!" Ruby responded. "So, we'll be training here? Seems like a really good spot." She waltzed forward into the grassy surroundings like a curious schoolgirl.

Jaune placed his hand behind his head nervously."Yeah, we'll need to be at our best if we want to perform well at the physical exam tommorrow. We'll be going up against a ton of other teams... maybe even you guys."

Pyrrah waved her hand down and shrugged away Ruby's downer mood. "There'll be no need to be worried. No matter what happens, we'll still be your friends. A little win or loss shouldn't be getting you down. On the flipside, it will allow us to work together a bit better in a sort of competitive sense."

Runy sighed with relief and relaxed her shoulders. "Well, when you put it that way, it doesn't seem too bad."

In the background behind her, Yang was crouched down looking at a large purple flower. In the center of its white pollinated center was a yellow and black striped bumblebee. Blake looked over her shoulder in curiosity. As Yang watched the poor shy creature buzz off of the flower out of the girl's presence, the loose pollen from the flower caused her to sneeze. "Achoo!"

Blake jolted back a bit, nearly into the tree behind her before maintaining her balance and facepalming.

Pyrrah launched the spear that was once tucked away from her back somewhere and she threw it up a little into the air before catching it. "Perhaps we can train together, we might end up learning a thing or two."

With a click of a gear, the spear folded into some kind of rifle weapon and she knelt down and practised pointing with it. Jaune got a little panicked when she aimed it at his head for a brief second but she pulled it away when she saw his whimpering face. Jaune relaxed his tense body and exhaled a sigh of relief. "Pyrrah, I hate to admit it but on very, very rare occasions you scare me just a little more than Nora."

"Well," Ruby stumbled around with her arms loose and swinging. "If you guys are alright with it, I'd be glad to at least. Not sure about the girls though." Ruby felt a chill as a cold hand landed on her shoulder behind her. Weiss had caught in on the banter "Why do you think I would pass up a chance to analyse our competition." Despite the brash delivery of her words, Ruby nodded in agreement. "What about Blake and Yang?"

Even though they were several paces away, Blake heavily nudged Yang to attention and informed the blonde about Pyrrah's plan... somehow. It was due to her acute hearing ability as a Faunus, but that was something team JNPR didn't know about; they just assumed it was her Semblance or Aura or whatever strange power she had. Yang walked over to Ruby and Weiss as they talked with Jaune and Pyrrah. For a while, they exchanged a few laughs.

Within the space of ten minutes, the banter had changed to a quieter, more tense mood. The groups had scattered, in the center was Yang standing a good distance apart from Lie Ren who looked back at her in a relaxed pose with his arms folded. Yang's body language was quite different, she stood with one foot forward and her arms prepped and ready as if she were about to run the 100 meter dash. On the sidelines stood the remaining members of JNPR and RWBY as they carefully observed the battle that was about to commence. Ruby Rose noticed the drastic difference in their stances "Ren looks so calm. He looks no where near the type to pick a fight with you." She watched as he casually warmed up his shoulders.

In the distance, Nora held out her silver rocket launcher-like weapon skyward. "May the best Ren win!" she cried, as if she was almost drunk (bearing in mind this is normal behaviour for Nora) and she relaxed her arms, before pulling the trigger launching silver bullets into the sky.

**Start**. Yang's small yellow bracers locked over her wrists like metal gauntlets which snapped and clicked like a loaded shotgun. One warning punch from them launched an explosive bullet of fire at Ren, who remained still and calm. The bullet hit the dirt where Ren was standing, causing a massive blast of earth to burst into the sky before falling in a dusty debris cloud. Yang stood there still ready to fight. She couldn't relax until she could see Ren fully defeated.

Ruby gasped as she watched Yang utterly decimate the opposite end of the field in a matter of seconds, feeling partially sorry for the poor blades of grass that fell victim to the burning cinders of the blast. It was then she witnessed Ren approach from behind Yang, who was still intent on the now settled dust cloud. Before her fears could be realized; her back was met with a powerful pushing force that launched her to the cratered mess she had created with a roll and tumble, head over heels. She only had seconds to regain her senses, gripping the dirt she stood up to challenge Ren as his approached quickly and swiftly. He didn't currently his usual green pistol blades in his hands.

Blake standing observant with her arms folded and her narrow expression unmoving reinforced this action. "He didn't pull his weapons yet, and relied on some kind of Aura or Semblance power."

Frustrated with missing her mark; Yang shot forth more punches unleashing more bullets. It was then Ren pressed harder with his foot onto the ground, launching himself in the air above the bullets. Like a magician, two green blade guns appeared in either hand and he shot down a rain of bullets upon the golden haired girl. Her hair flared and flickered like a candle and she used one gauntlet as a tiny buckler to rain from the bullets while she used her other hand to launch more shots at Ren. The green-dressed man landed on her with a slam, using his weapons now as blades trying to pierce through her defenses aggressively. Occupied trying to fend him off, Yang pulled out her leg and coiled it round, sweeping him over.

The fighting continued on for a while. Ren was a quick fighter, Yang was fast as well volleying her own array of deviating attacks. Ruby's eye slanted to the side where Weiss was standing. Her head was down, her arms were hunched over in a very unladylike distracted position. Was that a notebook? She was scribbling notes down inside it. "Weiss, are you trying to learn their fighting style so you can win against them?"

"O-of course not!" Weiss pulled her nose from her notepad and gave a stern look back. "I'm merely finding points of which they can improve on the next time!"

Ruby lowered her tone to a whisper so the angry Weiss wouldn't hear her. _"It's still the same thing you know."_ by the time she had turned back to face the duel between Yang and Ren, a large explosion obscured the battlefield. When the smoke cleared both competitors kneeled to the ground unable to stand. Yang's hair was a burning gold flicker of fire; that was until it petered out and lost its vibrant shine. Ren threw his weapons to the side to show he had no intentions of fighting further and Yang merely looked up at him. He held out a soft pale hand in a truce, and Yang accepted it. He noted that her hands were slightly cold from the dirt ground perhaps. "You fight hard." Yang smiled.

Lie Ren smiled and took a bow "You as well."

With a slip of grip; Yang nearly dropped off of his hand. Her vision blurred momentarily, with a sensation of vertigo she nearly tipped to the ground. Ren tightened his grip on her hand hand tried to lift her woozy legs to her feet, but before he knew it she had faded into a slumber. While the party of friends stood in shock at the sidelines, Ruby ran to her side. "Sister!"

Ren lay her on the ground where the Yang opened her eyes briefly. He face was drained of colour and she looked at her younger sibling with a smile on her face. "Don't worry, I'm just a little tierd is all."

Lie Ren placed his hand on her forehead. "She's got a fever. We should stop for today. Ruby, assist me back to Beacon."

"Seems like it's just a flu. Nothing to be panicing over Ruby, really." Pyrrah reassured that the girl's older sister would be alright. "Sometimes sickness gets the best of even the greatest of warriors."

A tense mood loomed over the silent grassy field.

* * *

Yang was now awake and looked at Ruby with a smile as she was being watched over. For a change Ruby was standing on her own two feet; rather than being the one that was being coddled over. In a way, she had hardly noticed the confidence she had now. The seeping light of the sun leaked in, it was still very much daytime but Ruby was stuck taking care of Yang. Blake and Weiss had departed to relax a while under the heavy atmosphere of unrest. Ruby stirred a hot mug of chocolate by the desk. "So, how you feeling right now Yang?" She asked anxiously, rubbing her nails together.

"A little better than I was, thanks." She placed her hand on her forehead "If only I was stronger..."

Ruby shook her head. "Nope. I think you did pretty well for being under the weather when you fought Ren."

Yang smiled. The comfort of her sister's words filled her with a with a beam of hope. However, that wasn't the least of her burdens. She had less than a day and a half to get better and help out her team during the test in several days. Being anything less than well would mean she was putting her team down. As she grew tierd, she fell asleep without realising it. _"I just wish I didn't have any more burdens. I'm already bringing sister and the team down as it is." _But she couldn't tell them. She couldn't tell them about the dark haze of a golden eyed woman staring down on from above in her dreams. She couldn't tell them about the slaughter of hundreds of people she had seen before her eyes or the gauntlets that were once tainted red from blood stains.

Ruby watched over the now sleeping Yang. She grabbed the covers a bit and pulled them up so Yang was a little more awry of the cold. She then shut the curtains to block out the sun made her way to the door. Before she did so, she looked back at the room as a last check to see if her sister was alright. "Yang. I'll be going with the others back to the entrance of Beacon. Keep safe." With that, Ruby shut the door behind her.


	2. A Call to Urgency

Weiss was pacing up and down the cobbled entrance of Beacon. She was in her usual unsettled mood with her arms folded. "Ruby sure likes to take her time."

Blake sighed and distracted herself from the noise of grumbling behind her. "Do you really care that little about Yang?"

"No... not so much that. It's just I wish Ruby hadn't made us wait this long." Weiss looked at Blake who was now out of her sight. Scaling up the side of the outer Beacon wall, Blake had ascended quickly to the top of it and was peering outward to get a better view. Weiss shrugged. "Do you always have to climb everything you see? It makes me wonder why I didn't notice you were a Faunus sooner!"

Blake hushed Weiss almost immediately. Revealing whom she was would have been a death sentence to her reputation as Faunus were discriminated against pretty direly. She focused her eye to the same tree she had stood under earlier, and once again she saw the same boy sitting under it painting. _"The same faunus boy." _Even with her acute senses she still couldn't tell what type he was even up close. Weiss finally made a sigh of relief when she saw a tired Ruby running at an extremely quick pace. "I'm so sorry guys!" She flailed her arms in the air and was clearly not looking where she was going, promptly crashing and tumbling into Weiss knocking her clean over.

Ruby lay on top of her dazed and Weiss pushed desperately to get her off. After the spinning Grimm beowolves around her head stopped spinning and barking, Ruby shakily got to her feet. Weiss stood up and dusted herself off from her skirt and sleeves "Watch where you're going!"

"Sorry."

"Sorry? It's been near enough four whole hours."

"Sorry again?"

"Nevermind. So long as Yang is alright I guess." Weiss grunted as she relaxed her arms. She very briefly surfaced a smile, deep down, she was at ease.

Peace didn't last a moment longer when with a snap and a click, the sound of bullets could be heard from the sky. Ruby looked up to the wall, Blake was gone. With the woosh of a ribbon, Blake lunged forth her gun blade the Gambol Shroud and struck down the head of giant black snake head that pulled itself out of one of the tree tops. The creature was known by hunters and huntresses as a King Taijitu, a dual-headed snake of yin and yang that could lunge with amazing duality whilst driving a wound of fear with its sheer ferocity. Blake crouched down on the monsters head and rode it for a while as it raced through the air into the forest. Her eyes met with the other head of the snake who had become furious at her deviation and made a wide arching lunge for her, creating a drastic shadow above her head. Almost vanishing into thin air with nothing more than a blurred after image of Blake to look at, the snakes large protruding fangs locked into the neck of its connected other kin.

With a rustle of grass, Blake landed with the thud onto the ground with one hand out to soften her fall. She noticed the boy next to her shivering with fear. This time he stood clutching the book in his hands shaking. Underneath the roaring pain of the Grimm snake monster, Weiss planted a black glyph on the ground underneath her which suddenly changed red launching her skyward. As the white head of the snake flailed angrily knowing it had nigh murdered half of its own being, Weiss swiped her sword across the sky. The barrel of her silver Myrtenaster changed and clicked as the dust ammunition in it rotated to a light blue vial. A trail of frozen ice pathed its way from the sword tip and directed itself towards the white King Taijitu head as it went for Weiss in a fit of rage, allowing it to be consumed by the ice. Its body could still move and slither albeit sluggishly. As Weiss landed back down onto a thick branch of a tree she watched as Ruby joined in.

Ruby held a compact red folded scythe named the Crescent Rose; only this weapon currently looked like an oversized red Magnum with a huge barrel. She clicked the trigger below it so it was fully loaded and fired blast of flame towards her frozen target. It exploded on impact, causing the head of the snake to be blasted into ice shards. A single shot and a single round of ammunition was needed to wipe the beasts head clean off; with the help of Weiss' frozen dust magic. Ruby sighed as she watched an empty silver clip of her ammunition rounds fall onto the ground. "That was kinda scary. That Grimm was awfully close to our school."

"More like a foolish Grimm. It would have stood no chance against the people in this academy anyway." Weiss spoke slyly as she sheathed her revolver-sword back into its holster. She dusted off her snow-white dress of invisible leaves and splinters and hopped back down to the trunk of the trees.

Uther was still shivering with fright so Ruby went over to cuddle the cute little boy. As she went over to him with a pleasant expression on her face, he took several steps back. On closer inspection, Ruby noticed he had a black tail. "A Faunus?"

Blake held out her hand telling her to stop her advancement. "Yeah."

Little Uther began to appear teary eyed. "Are you going to treat me bad now because you know what I am?"

Ruby began panicking and flailed her arms. "No, that's not what it..."

"Anyway, it's dangerous out here with Grimm about, so I'll escort him home." Blake knelt down to the level of the young boy and held out her hand. "I'm no different to you, there's no need to be afraid. These guys are here to help you out as well." It was rare for Blake to smile so openly, she had a surprising hidden talent of being able to deal with kids. Uther wiped his eyes as he continued to snivel. The warm gentle smile he was met with cheered him up a little and while his eyes were still damp, the tears stopped flowing. It was then Blake turned to her leader in red. "Ruby, I don't know how long I'll be, but I should be back before nightfall."

Ruby had no choice but to agree to the terms and nodded. "Alright. We'll have to improvise I guess."

Weiss sighed. "I would much prefer that we didn't get sidetracked and could actually train some more, but I think a fight with Grimm counts at least... even if it was a small challenge."

Ruby placed her hand on her chin and began to think openly. "I'm actually surprised we wiped out a King Taijitu so fast actually. Me combining my Crescent Rose with your ice-dust stuff really works out great!"

"Schnee Manufactured Dust. Top of the line, top quality Dust." Weiss was not fond of Ruby's sloppy language. "But you're right, it would be wise to utilize some good combination attacks if we want to be able to pass."

"We still don't even know what the exam will be about yet. I just hope Yang gets better before then."

"Oh she'll have to, otherwise it would be a massive disadvantage if we were down even one team member."

"I don't know how easy that will be though." Ruby loosened her arms so they dangled and had her had to the ground in uncertainty. Her foot kicked up some dirt from the ground as she began to think of her bright and wild sister who lay in her bed back in the dorm. 

* * *

Yang didn't realise it, but she had fallen asleep again. Opening her eyes once again, she rolled from side to side in bother. Never before had she desired to sleep like a rock in fear of dreaming uncertain thoughts. Every time she shut her eyes she could see the blood on her Ember Ceclia's and two pillars of fire in the far distance among a crimson skyline.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she suddenly sneezed; a stark reminder that she was still under the weather. She had stayed in bed far longer than she was comfortable though and as someone who placed vigorous efforts into her physical activity she desired nothing more than to raise up from the rags that lay on top of her and get back to her studies. Clutching the foundry wooden rim just at the lower side of the bed to her right she pulled herself into a seated position like a rusty lever.

"_My sister Ruby Rose smiles so much and tells me about all her problems, but there are still things I haven't told her. I wish I could have the chance to tell her... but that will be the day I'll lose everything."_

* * *

"Another Grimm." Blake drew the Gambol Shroud from the holster on her back like a shinobi of the dusk. As the sunset grew increasingly dark with each passing minute, she pushed the faunus boy to the ground fairly forcefully. Several pairs of eyes stared back at her from several directions under the shroud of dark. "Keep down."

"But Blake...!" Uther's words didn't reach her focus. Her sharp eye could make out the shapes of their bodies and the helmets on their heads. They weren't like the Grimm she had learned about in classes. They were black lumbering lizards with thick bodies and a white mask in blood red stencils. They had shards of dust gemstones down their backs like spines that appeared slightly white in colour and corroded. Seeking her opportunity while the monsters stood there and observed her Blake unsheathed the Gambol Shroud to create two blades. One was the thick edge of the sheath like a meat cleaver, the other a skinny rapier. The rapier clicked and folded into a bladed gun attached by a black ribbon and Black threw it forward to shoot the gemstone.

The gun pistol let free a fiery bullet that impacted the spine, blasting it into pale green shardlings. "What...?" Blake gasped as she hopped back. The angered Lizard-Grimm hurled a lumbering claw in anger inciting the rage of the other Grimm behind it.

Another claw swung from the Grimm and Blake hurtled backwards to dodge it. "Normally Dust would detonate on impact. But it just crumbled into nothing as if it were chalk." With her plan to blow up the monster in one quick assault was trounced, she had to rethink her strategy. However, she didn't have long to react. More and more of the lizard grimm kept emerging, all as big as an Ursa. She and Uther were surrounded. Dragging her blade back into her hands she bit her lip and relaxed a moment as she observed them circling her and the boy. "There's just so many of them, where did they all come from?"

Uther's pupils shrank and he dropped his sketchbook on the grassy floor. "Why do they look like the monsters in my drawings?" Blake grabbed the boy by the with both arms. He was heavy, but she was still able to leap over the monsters and landed with a tumble. As Uther struggled to stand up, Blake still lay there on the ground with her eyes trying to lock on to the group of devils. They were already looking at her and lumbering in her direction. "We need to run before we get surrounded by them again." Blake was sure she could handle them, but with someone vulnerable at her side it made things a huge handicap to her combat ability. Hopping back, she turned and ran whilst grabbing Uther's small arm in her direction.

Trees raced behind them like rows of cars on a motorway. The black shadows under the boughs would normally be a match for any human but Blakes golden eyes could still make out every detail on each trunk. Her heart raced as she listened for the growls of the monsters behind her get quieter and quieter and grew anxious if she would run into any more. The pathway curved upwards onto a hill where no more trees stood, until it overlooked a cliff face. Putting out her boot, she slowed her speed to a stop and checked behind her to see if the monsters had gone. "I don't hear any signs of them just yet."

Meanwhile, little Uther looked outwards over the cliff. As Blake wandered over to see, the cliff wasn't all that high up. It overlooked an old ruins covered up by several trees. Her eyes widened "I've never seen this area in Vale before."

Uther sighed and drooped down into a knelt position. "It seems so familiar. Maybe my father talked about it once."

"When I said I'd take you home, I didn't think I'd have to go this far out into the woods."

"Sorry..."

**_Rustle._ **

"...Shhh!" Blake placed a finger to her mouth to issue silence and her bow twitched a little. She could hear the roar of the same Grimm she had been running from. "This is pretty bad." She looked down the cliff and noticed some openings she could land on and work her way down. "I hope you don't mind going for a ride again."

"Not really, but do I have a choice...?" Uther couldn't even finish his sentence when he was already grabbed by the woman. Then she leapt down; the boy felt the velocity as gravity pulled him back down. Blake's hard landings made the rock under her feet crumble and crack. _"One more jump should do it." _

She jumped again. Something was off though. Her foot slipped forward at the edge of the next clump of rock before the earth underneath her completely gave way, causing her to tumble down with Uther in her arms. With a hiss of dirt, the pair landed at the bottom, despite being slightly dazed and muddy. Blake got back up and helped Uther up before she looked towards the large letter box opening of the ruins. It was completely consumed by dirt from the top side, making it impossible to be noticed directly from above. Oddly large squarish brown rocks littered the vast flat opening in front of it reminiscing incredibly old slabs. From her perspective it looked a lot like a dissected subway station without the track platform.

Blake was curious to explore it but couldn't do so with a mission on her hands. Her eyes scanned for him, but he was no where in sight. She checked behind the large slab, but couldn't find him there vanish. She could have sworn he was just by her a few minutes ago. Not sure if she was dreaming she peered by the cliff edge. Not there either. Utterly perplexed by what was happening, a light from the cave distracted her. Like a single tiny Christmas light it flashed white, blue, yellow, red, green and purple inviting her in. "Uther...?" Blake asked aloud and stepped forth into the wide tunnel. "If you're in her, come back out, we need to go."

Her voice echoed the hall, but no answer.

As she moved through the black void, she inspected the green slabs of stone that made up the walls and floors. It had mostly been untouched besides the collection of dirt from the winds at the entrance. She continued to follow the light down the tunnel but it seemed to stretch on forever with no sign of the scenery changing. Then, to her suprise, she made out crumbled bones and old skeletal corpses. Some where of man, some were beasts. An overwhelming chill and the silence gave her the odd suspicion she was being watched.

Finally, she had reached the source. The tunnel had ended after half a mile of trekking down it and the beam of multi-hued lights belonged to a large orb that shifted and melded in different colours. It was some kind of offering and surrounding it were some very familiar looking statues of the strange Grimm she had seen earlier. It would have only made sense if this what the place they had originate from, but now the cave was completely devoid of them. With little understanding of the place or purpose of the stone Blake reached out to touch it.

"Seize her."

A group of men dropped from an opening above. She couldn't make them out right away since they were behind her and her hands hand been bound by a rather large one who had twisted her hands behind her back into a less than comfortable position. Before she could react, she was kicked hard in the back and pushed to the ground. As she turned her head around with her check to the floor, she could see a boot of a man besides her pacing rather furiously.

"And here I thought you would actually put up a fight. I was sorely mistaken." The man had that dark formal and strict tone to his voice.

"What do you want? Why are you in here?" Blake demanded, her brows narrowing. She could smell the scent of him. This man and his cohorts stunk of Faunus, but much like with Uther, she couldn't figure out what type they were.

"We're here to deliver your justice in a neat little package courtesy of the White Fang and Ms. Fall herself."

"You're members of White Fang?" Blake demanded. Another push into her back made her position even more uncomfortable, unable to break free.

"Not quite. We're merely the middle men. Know me as Mordred."

"More like hired goons." Blake scolded. She gasped when a block of red dust came near her face.

"I would hold the sharp tongue if I were you. Or your head and tounge will be forcefully extracted from your own body!"

* * *

It was getting late. Ruby looked eagerly out at the moonlight sky from her dormitory for Blake's return but with each passing hour her friend never returned. Weiss came into the room and shut the door behind her, looking up at the rather down looking girl. "Well we weren't able to practise all that much but I did find out a few things about CRDL combat strategy, they'll be a piece of cake when we face them." Weiss noticed Ruby's sad puppy face and immediately scoffed at her. "What's up now? Yang is a lot better than she was before, we made sure of that didn't we?"

"Yeah, I was just wondering why Blake hasn't made it back."

"Maybe that boy's home was further than she thought. That's what happens when she decides to be such a good simaritan." Weiss placed her hands on her hips. "She'll have to return before daybreak or else we'll have to go on an adventure of our own."

Ruby shook her head and leapt from the top bunk onto the ground. Weiss tried to stop her from going out the door by grabbing Ruby's shoulder. "You know what she's like, running off like she does, she'll be back."

Ruby averted her gaze from Weiss. "I... I want to make sure. That Grimm that attacked us so near the school has been bothering me."

Yang heard the two subtly squabbling and pulled herself out of her covers. She had a lot more energy than she had in the morning, her rest had allowed her immune system to fight whatever virus was within it. "A Grimm near the school? But there isn't supposed to be..."

Ruby looked up to the other top bunk where Yang resided in. "Yang!" Ruby noticed that Yang began to stare vacantly. It was then she pulled herself out of her bed, reached for her yellow Ember Cecelia's and made for the door.

She promptly failed though, Ruby and Weiss attempted to stop her, but Yang's own illness stopped her first. She collapsed in a heap on the ground, still conscious, but weak. "That burning witch... Ruby... if you don't do something soon, Blake will...!"

Ruby knelt by Yang and looked into her clouded eyes. "Do you know something? Yang!"

The blonde began to choke and cough, but despite the Schnee usually acting childish over sick indiviuals, she instead moved Ruby aside and grabbed Yang's arm. "Ruby, go after Blake. I'll take care of Yang."

"Ruby... head to the Fabled Forest." Yang uttered as Ruby slowly backed out of the room. "If I had the strength, I'd chase after her."

Ruby acknowledged her older sister's plight even though many questions about her outburst remained unanswered. The girl in black and red made it through the dorm doorway and down the corridor she noticed an individual blocked the bottom end of it. The last thing she needed was one of her teachers reprimanding her for breaking curfew. But no. Instead there was a familiar lady wearing her bronze armour. Ruby screeched to a halt and stopped in front of her. "Pyrrah! What are you doing up this late?"

"I heard the commotion in the other room. It just seems to be one conflict after another with you guys this weekend. Luck doesn't seem to give you a break." Pyrrah seemed awfully sympathetic to the group. She had been kind enough to notice that things had been going everything less than smoothly in a team outside her own. "Actually, to be totally honest, Jaune was the first one to mention it. I wanted to come along with you and find your friend. Unfortunately Nora is sleeping like a log, on top of Ren no less, so I just left those two there."

Ruby made a screwy face and whispered _"...On top of?"_

"Well," Pyrrah waved outwards "We better get going shall we?"


End file.
